Vitamin C is what’s called an “essential nutrient.” That term means two things: that people can’t live without it, and that the human body cannot produce it.

Therefore, you must either take supplements or get enough vitamin C in your diet to prevent a deficiency.

I check every new patient who comes to my office for their vitamin and mineral status. In 25 years of testing, I have observed that well more than 90 percent of patients suffer from nutritional deficiencies — and many have vitamin C deficiency.

I have written before that the first patient I treated holistically was my father Ellis, who was suffering from heart disease.

He was also severely deficient of hormones, particularly testosterone and thyroid.

When I gave him bioidentical testosterone and natural thyroid hormone, his 25-year history of daily angina went away within seven days, and his cholesterol level, which had been stuck in the mid- 300s for more than a decade, fell below 200.

I also found out that my dad was deficient in various vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C.

After seeing the positive responses my father had with balancing his hormonal system, I began a search for safe and effective natural therapies. I started with educating myself about the essential vitamins — A, B, C, D, K, and E.

The first vitamin I researched was vitamin C. As I previously stated, in my medical training, I never entertained the idea that my patients or that anyone in the U.S. was lacking in some type of nutrient, vitamin C included.